Village quilts 2 & 3

It’s been a few months since I shared my first village charity quilt, and back in May I wasn’t as on track as I’d wanted to be to meet my ‘one a quarter’ plan, but it’s amazing what a difference a couple of months can make, as here I am with the second and third of this style of quilts - and I still love making them so I think there will be plenty more.

But 2 & 3…

Mum came along to the July Saturday sewing group meeting with me and at that meeting I seemed to steam through topping up my house pile to make another top. I know I need 30 houses for each quilt top, so when I think I’m close and then find out I’m not as close as I thought, I put my foot down.

Anyway at that sewing group meeting I completed the top for the second quilt - and as you’ll notice one of the houses on the second row has a more modern take on the roof shape. It’s an oops, but an acceptable oops in this style of quilt, as well, not all houses look the same anyway do they?

VILLAGE 2 QUILT TOP

I enjoyed piecing this so much that over the next few days I completed the top for my third village quilt.

VILLAGE 3 QUILT TOP

I love how they look so different, but are so clearly the same design. Some fabrics are used in both quilt tops, and some will continue to feature for a quilt or two more I’m sure, while I’ve probably used the last of some in these quilts.

I decided it would be sensible to choose two different backings for these quilts, as it made sense to batch the remaining tasks. This led me to another ‘design decision’. I was keen to use the bluey/grey and white dot fabric with the yellow flowers as a backing for the final time, but if I added two borders I wouldn’t have quite enough. I guestimated that with a single border I could use it as backing, and even better I could use that material on the front too as a border, though I wasn’t quite sure how it would work as previously I’d used the cream border.

There was only one way to find out

So both quilts were basted and quilted, then trimmed ready for binding.

VILLAGE 2 QUILTED

VILLAGE 3 QUILTED

The patterned border makes them look quite different again, doesn’t it?

I like it though, and it’s persuaded me to be bolder with some of these quilts in the future. But discipline meant that I needed to finish these quilts before I’d let myself play with any future colour schemes, and I wanted to include both of these in my donation early in September.

VILLAGE 2 FINISHED

VILLAGE 3 FINISHED

I’m pleased with both of them and love how they’re both the same but also so different - and I hope that they’ll provide a hug to someone that needs one soon.

You can see my other quilts I’ve made to donate to Project Linus - a charity whose mission is to provide love, a sense of security, warmth and comfort to children, who are sick, disabled, disadvantaged or distressed through the donation of new, homemade, washable quilts and blankets.

Some more quilts from the exhibition galleries

In this last post from the quilts I loved at the 2025 Festival of Quilts I’m sharing quilts displayed in a couple of the exhibition galleries, and they’re just as good as any of the others I’ve shared. I can’t quite believe that I’m getting ready to go along to the show again at the end of this month, where did that year go?

Anyway, let’s start in the Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) Haven Gallery, an exhibition which explores in quilt form the ‘universal need for a safe space—a place to rest, heal, or regroup’. The pieces on display ‘posed questions about nurturing loved ones, providing refuge for those in need, and expressing each artist’s personal interpretation of what a haven represents.’

DAYTIME DREAMING, KAREN SUNDAY SPENCER

There’s many interpretations to the theme, and the quilt title helps to understand what the maker had in mind, and that itself makes the quilts so much more powerful.

PUT YOUR FEET UP AND TAKE IT EASY, CINDY RICHARD

SAND AND SEA, PATTY KENNEDY-ZAFRED

The quilting techniques on show also vary, and it’s the more colourful ones that naturally caught my eye.

A BOY AND HIS IMAGINATION, DEB CASHATT

GREEN SPACE, EUNHEE LEE

But it was this final one from this gallery that took my breath away. As we walked past it we at first thought it was a painting, and therefore an odd inclusion at the show - it was a long day, we’d walked many steps by this point and had been wowed by many, many quilts.

ONCE LOVED, ALISON KING

But this one deserved another look.

ONCE LOVED, ALISON KING

It wasn’t a painting at all, but probably the most detailed quilting I’ve ever seen. And so amazing, just look at the attention to detail of the green staining on the corner of the once loved building.

ONCE LOVED, ALISON KING

They are all amazing, but that last one was just mind blowingingly so!

Having recovered from that amazing-ness, there was a final gallery on our list of things to see, and the next two pictures are from the Pat Pauly collection entitled ‘Pieces and Resistance’. The quilts showcase her decades of expertise in art quilting and textile design, her quilts are said to ‘bridge the worlds of painting and fabric art’ and you can totally see that when you look at the images below.

PAT PAULY

The gallery blurb said that from a distance her quilts often resemble paintings, but closer inspection reveals their complexity as intricate textile compositions. I can totally get that, and I love the explosion of colour.

PAT PAULY

Given the colour ways of these quilts, it’ll be no surprise to many of you that these were among my favourites from the whole show. The 2025 show was my first time at the Festival of Quilts, and I’m gearing up to go again at the end of the month so over the next year I’ll continue to share the quilts that catch my eye. I’m once again going to the show with my SIL and we already have a workshop booked, but knowing what’s ahead of me this time I know I need to pace myself, take a power supply for my phone and be better at giving myself clues on the quilt name and maker!

And I fully expect to be wowed and wowed again at this year’s show.

Circling back to the contemporary quilts

A cheesy title for this blog post I know, but when I looked at my favourites from the contemporary quilts category, all but one featured circles so it just had to be done.

This first one though could potentially be debated about it being a quilt at all, it wouldn’t be one to snuggle up under now would it? But the thought process, colour choice and pure skill in creating this aren’t in doubt.

RANDOM CIRCLES, DEBORAH COLLINS

The non-circle quilt in this post instead uses triangles to make squares and pinwheels in a beautifully chaotic way, and in a way that Chris English does so well. I love the mash of colours and patterns, all the while there’s a very distinct overall theme.

CHOOSE QUILTING, CHRISTOPHER ENGLISH

More circles in this quilt, and more structure too - though some of the misshapen circles do have an element of Pacman to them, but also a touch of Orla Kiely, don’t you think?

SPINNING TRADITION, DAISY ASCHEHOUG

I love the thin width of the quilting of this one too, and that it’s horizontal not vertical, small details really do make the difference.

The final quilt is for me one that has a cheery and summery look - that’s definitely down to the colours and patterns used. It’s also a design that the more you look at the more you see, are they diagonal rows of circles or a circle on top of four others, or something else.

FLOATING BROKEN CIRCLES, CARINA ENVOLDSEN-HARRIS

Either way, it definitely deserves its place in my favourites from this category - which do you like best?